“When you said projections, I thought they’d be see-through or flickering,” Natalie said. “They look real.”

“Almost,” Kenzie said. “Calling.”

There was a beep, and Rain’s projection started moving. The physical movements below the neck were fairly generic, but the faces seemed true to life.

“I wish I had a better idea of what my body was doing,” Rain said.

“Welcome to my life,” Sveta said.

“I can’t tell if you’re joking. If you’re not, I’m really sorry.”

“I’m joking, don’t worry,” she said. “Dark joke, but hey.”

Ashley’s projection took on a semblance of life. She looked around.

Tristan was the one who started us off. “People are interested. We’re lining up help, and what we’re thinking is we’ll use that help to track prison staff when they’re outside of the prison—especially those who are making suspicious movements. Any clues you can give us help.

“This kind of tracking sounds extreme,” Natalie said.

I answered, “Standard cop-style surveillance. Lots of waiting. No peeking in windows, no trespassing on property. If they go for a drive late at night, we have a flier or speedster track them. Maybe thinkers poke their heads in.”

“Okay,” Natalie said. She considered for a moment. “How do you enforce this if it’s hired help?”

“If they screw around or bend the rules, we cut them off,” Ashley said.

“That,” I said. “We have reason to think the prison is compromised. The big heroes know about it, but we’re in an awkward position. It’s like trying to deal with someone planning on crashing a plane. It’s a lot harder to get them when they’re out of reach. If we can get them on the ground, though—”

“You fly,” Rain said.

“It’s an allegory, Rain,” Sveta said. “I’d punch you in the arm if you were here.”

“Anything you guys can give us helps,” I said. “Starting points, ways to narrow down who we’re looking at.”

“I talked to Crystalclear,” Rain said. “I tried, anyway, he wasn’t down for it. I said I knew you, and you’d fought together at the community center, but he didn’t believe me.”

“Makes sense,” Chris said. “You could be a thinker. Or an anything. If he was a hero, he might have enemies.”

“Yeah,” Rain said.

I mused for a second before saying, “I visited Fume Hood at the hospital, Tempera and Crystalclear were there. Later that night, I had Tempera help me with a kid in crisis—she would have told Crystalclear. The kid ended up going to Europe. He should be able to confirm where we’re at, then see what he has to say.”

“Got it,” Rain said.

“I have something too,” Ashley said. “Goddess is interested in the prison. Did you read her messages?”

“No,” Tristan said. “There’s no written record. She’s doing it through her people, who call or visit, because her actually showing up would be as good as an act of war. There are some notes here and there, for paperwork, and we can see emails going out asking for arbitration or help. She’s been interested since before the portal debacle, and she’s been getting impatient.”